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The news that Steven Miller, deputy commissioner for services and enforcement at the Internal Revenue Service, will become acting IRS commissioner next month is likely to be a welcome development for tax whistleblowers.

Finally there will be a person in charge of the IRS who appears to be invested in its whistleblower program and knowledgeable about its potential.

During Shulman’s tenure, whistleblowers have been gotten the cold shoulder from the IRS, causing whistleblowers to doubt the agency’s commitment to the program.

Shulman’s legacy with whistleblowers is in the numbers. Since 2009, the number of claims has steadily sunk: The number of whistleblowers stepping forward has declined by a third, to the lowest point in four years.

Shulman has been conspicuously absent from any public discussion of the tax whistleblower program. During his term as commissioner, Shulman never said a word publicly about the IRS whistleblower program, which Congress created in 2006 at the behest of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Shulman never even responded to numerous inquiries directed to him from Grassley about the whistleblower program. He left it to his deputies -- in particular, Miller -- to respond.

“Timely and comprehensive evaluation of information provided by whistleblowers is essential to the success of this program,” Miller noted. “Please give this subject your personal attention so that the Service can take full advantage of whistleblower information in our compliance programs.”

The IRS has taken some encouraging steps recently, making awards to a number of whistleblowers, including an award of $104 million to the UBS whistleblower, Bradley Birkenfeld. We can only hope that Miller will continue to see the value of whistleblowers to tax enforcement and will give the whistleblower program the “personal attention” he has requested from others.